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Breathing – Proper Breathing Vital to Health & Well-Being

Posted October 27, 2016 by Addict Help

Breathing is vital to life, it is the first thing you do when born. You take millions of breaths in life but what you fail to understand is that mind, body and breath are intimately connected and they can influence each other. Our thoughts can influence our thinking and physiology and thoughts can be influenced by your breath. Learning to breathe consciously and with awareness is a valuable tool to help you restore balance in your body and mind. Research conducted has shown there are a number of benefits of practicing simple deep breathing.

The Importance of Proper Breathing

1. Breathing Exercises Help Calm the Mind

Breathing deeply is one of the fastest ways to stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system which is the relaxation response that makes one feel relaxed. Most people live stressful lives accompanied by shallow breathings, stress is at the core of most diseases. Breathing shallow means your body does not get the oxygen it needs and this makes your muscles constrict. You can feel this tightening when stressed or tense. When you feel anxious or stresses, breathe deeply and you can feel the peace coming in and the body releasing the tension as you breathe in and out.

2. Breathing exercises detoxify the body
Our bodies have been designed to release up to 70% of toxins through breathing. Carbon dioxide is a natural toxic waste from the body’s metabolic processes and has to be released consistently and regularly. It gets transferred through the blood to the lungs where it is expelled. The lungs however are comprised by shallow breathings and other detoxifying systems have to work harder to expel the waste. This overload can make the body weak and consequently lead to illness. Deep breathing exercises help in releasing the toxins from the body avoiding weakness.

3. Breathing exercises stimulate the lymphatic system
The lymphatic system is a crucial system in the body but most people are unaware of this fact. Many people know more about the circulatory system and not the lymphatic system. This might come as a surprise but you have twice the amount of lymphatic fluid as you have blood. While the circulatory system relies on the heart to pump it, the lymphatic system relies on the breathing to get it moving. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the cells while they excrete waste into the lymphatic fluid. They lymph fluid is responsible of ridding the waste and dead cells. Shallow breathing can lead to having a sluggish lymphatic system that does not detoxify properly. With breathing exercises, the lymph flows properly and the body cells work efficiently.

4. Breathing exercises help in strengthening major organs
Deep breathing during exercises expands the lungs and gets them working efficiently. Deep breathing, means more oxygen gets into the lungs and gets absorbed into the blood stream. This means that the heart is not over worked in an effort to deliver enough oxygen to the body cells. This eases the pressure needed from the heart to pump the blood throughout the body. It not only improves circulation but the heart also gets a break.

Breathing exercises increases the oxygen supply in our body which hence improving the nervous system that interacts with all the body parts hence improving the overall health of the body. There are so many other benefits of breathing exercises such as lowering blood pressure and getting better sleep that you never get to experience till you try breathing exercises.

Robert M. has been in recovery since 1988. He is a sponsor and loyal member of AA. He has been working in the drug and alcohol field for nearly 20 years. During that time, he has written industry blogs and articles for a variety of industry websites including Transitions, Malibu Horizons, Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches and Lifeskills of Boca Raton.

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